Gretchen, the ‘Queen of Rebolado’ (swing) from our previous post, is not the única (only) Brazilian who has been successful around the mundo (world) lately. The release of the videoclip Sua Cara (your face), in late July, the result of a partnership of two Brazilian artists with the group Major Lazer, brought a lot of visibility to ambos (both). But quem são eles (who are they)?

Anitta: Larissa de Macedo Machado is vinte e quatro (24) years old and began singing at oito (8) in a igreja (church) on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. In 2010, after posting a video cantando (singing) on Youtube, she caught the attention of the producer of the independent record company Furacão 2000, specialized in funk, and started her professional career.The stage name “Anitta” was inspired by the protagonist of the miniseries Presença de Anita (Anita’s Presence), by Rede Globo network. The character, lived by the actress Mel Lisboa, was the representation of a young woman who was sensual and sweet ao mesmo tempo (at the same time).

Anitta

Her success earned her a contract with Warner Music Brasil and, by 2013, Anitta was the primeira (first) Brazilian artist to reach 100 million views on Youtube. Gradually, funk gave way to references from the pop world, which becomes evident in the video from the song Bang.

From then on, she caught on with several hits and was even present at the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games. In addition to Sua Cara, she has outras (other) recordings with international artists such as Iggy Azalea, Maluma and rapper Tyga.

Pabllo: Phabullo Rodrigues da Silva, vinte e dois (22), is the nova (new) pop music sensation in Brazil. He started singing at age treze (13), at school recitals, family parties and also at church, just like Anitta. As um adolescente (a teenager), he left his hometown, São Luís, in Maranhão, to try to become a professional in São Paulo.

But when he was quinze (15) years old, he moved to Uberlândia, in Minas Gerais, where he presented at small gigs, and três (3) years later started to identify himself as a drag queen.

In 2015, the Brazilian drag queen began to gain national notoriety with the release of the Open Bar music clip, a re-reading of Major Lazer’s song Lean On in partnership with MØ. The video reached more than a million views in less than um mês (a month).

In janeiro (January) 2016, Vittar was hired by Globo as the new lead singer in the band of the show “Amor & Sexo”. This hiring was a great victory for the drag community, since in Brazil it is not common for them to gain visibility for any other talent other than just being drags.

Um ano depois (a year later), in early 2017, Pabllo released his first studio album and reached the status of most followed drag queen on digital platforms in the world, outdoing even the world-famous RuPaul.

Now vamos (let’s) watch the video:

Check out the lyrics here: https://www.letras.mus.br/major-lazer/sua-cara/

Have your heard about them before? What did you think?

Tenham uma boa semana! Have a good week!

]]>http://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/who-is-anitta-pablo-vittar/feed/0http://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/who-is-anitta-pablo-vittar/Who is Gretchen/ Swish Swishhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PortugueseBlog/~3/5Vl_VZARxOY/
http://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/who-is-gretchen-swish-swish/#respondSun, 13 Aug 2017 23:50:48 +0000Transparent Languagehttp://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/?p=7642Continue reading]]>In July, Katy Perry’s Swish Swish lyric video hit a record: it was the most watched female-artist video in vinte e quatro horas (24 hours). Of course, all of Katy’s fame and success contributed to this statistics, but talvez (perhaps) the one actually in charge of the huge number of views is Gretchen, the protagonist.

Gretchen

When watching the video, did you, by any chance, happen to sentir (feel) that Gretchen looks familiar? It may even be that you have never seen her antes (before), but her rosto (face) has been around the internet on countless memes and gifs not only in Brazil but throughout the mundo (world).

If you haven’t done any research on the story behind all this facial expressiveness, não se preocupe (do not worry). We’ll summarize who she is for you: Maria Odete Brito de Miranda Marques is Gretchen’s birth name, who was born on May 29, 1959, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. One of her primeiros (first) artistic works was in 1978 in the group “As Melindrosas”, with her sisters Sula and Yara and cousin Paula.

A short time depois (later), however, she left the group and começou (started) her solo career. The name was inspired by the Brazilian film “Hallelujah, Gretchen,” about a German family who sought refuge in Brazil against Nazism.

His first album, “Dance With Me,” vendeu (sold) more than 150,000 copies and earned a Golden Record. From then on, the cantora (singer) has recorded numerous hits such as Freak Le Boom Boom, Conga Conga Conga, Melô do Piripiri (Je Suis La Femme) and Melique do Xique Xique. She was one of the most successful artists of her time, performing in over a thousand shows in less than três anos (three years). Gretchen also performed overseas and trabalhou (worked) as an actress.

Her sensual performances earned Gretchen the titles of “Queen of Rebolado” (swing) and “Queen of the Butt” (bumbum).

From the mid-1990s, however, her success began to decline and Gretchen perdeu (lost) a lot of relevance as a national artist. Some may say that she even went through some financial difficulty.

Maria Odete then used to appear on TV only when the media was reporting one of her dezessete (17) marriages – although only cinco (5) of them are official.

It was in 2010 that the singer began to take part in a number of reality shows. These participations drew attention from the media and the audience, who once again started to appreciate Gretchen and produced these images that put her back on the map gave the artist her national relevance back. Ainda bem! (Thank goodness!)

Today we’ll have another installment of our Portuguese listening/reading practice series. Hope you are enjoying them! The text is called A melhor coisa do avião é o que ele ainda não tem (The best thing about an airplane is what it still hasn’t got) again by Brazilian comedian Gregório Duvivier from his weekly column at Folha de São Paulo newspaper. It is about riding airplanes, in-flight entertainment, fear of flying and so on. See if you can identify words like avião (airplane), flying (voar), vôo (flight) and other related words while you listen to it!

Brazilian comedian Gregório Duvivier

As usual, try these steps:

Listen to the audio first. See if you can identify any words and write them down, if you want to.

Scroll down and read the text. You can try reading it out loud to practice your pronunciation and speaking skills, or play the audio again and follow as you listen. Read each sentence carefully and see what you can recognize and understand.

Check translated text in italics. What were you able to grasp? Which parts were the most difficult? It’s a good idea to read the text in Portuguese again now that you know its full meaning.

I’ve never been afraid of airplanes, on the contrary. I think airplanes are the most magical and funnest things ever invented. I’m more peaceful at 11,000 meters than standing on solid ground. I want to nudge people next to me: “Do you have any idea of the miracle that it is to be flying?” There are a thousand entertainment options, ranging from reading the survival instructions to the toilet one that seems to swallow you up (when I was little I imagined my poop falling from above and made sure to evacuate in uninhabited areas), through a thousand films and shows and by the warm food and the open bar and the clouds seen from above. But I just realized, when they announced that the flight would have wi-fi, that the biggest advantage of all is not what a plane has, but what it does not have (or had): the internet.

Part 2:

The plane, like some paradisiacal beaches and North Korea, has no internet, and that, you see, is a delight. The world may end and you will not know. Reading flows like nowhere else. Sleeping as well. I watch movies and almost always get excited (the fact that they serve wine on international flights contributes, of course). The only torment of flying for me is the short duration: it always lasts less than it should and I end up not reading or sleeping everything I wanted. Okay, it’s true I’ve never been to Asia. But whenever I take the air-bridge I want it to last a little longer: the landing catches me every time by surprise, like a father picking up his son from the bounce house. “Already, daddy?”

Part 3:

Yes, I know this peace will be over soon. Several flights already have wi-fi connection and very soon a plane without internet will be as unimaginable as a plane with a smoking area. Yes, children, you could smoke on a plane. No, we do not miss it. Oh, the reader will say, but you can put the phone on airplane mode. Yes, but you know, cynical reader, there are few things as irresistible as the internet, and you know that if there’s wi-fi, I’ll connect, and so will you, and suddenly it’s going to turn into a hell of cell phones beeping, vibrating and whistling, and a bunch of WhatsApp audios will join a storm of Instagram stories. While that does not happen, next time you get on a plane, take the time to remember: the world has already been this way, quiet. Delicious.

]]>http://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/portuguese-listeningreading-practice-a-melhor-coisa-do-aviao/feed/0noOlá, pessoal! Hey, guys! Today we’ll have another installment of our Portuguese listening/reading practice series. Hope you are enjoying them! The text is called A melhor coisa do avião é o que ele ainda não tem (The best thing about an airplane is what iTransparent LanguageOlá, pessoal! Hey, guys! Today we’ll have another installment of our Portuguese listening/reading practice series. Hope you are enjoying them! The text is called A melhor coisa do avião é o que ele ainda não tem (The best thing about an airplane is what it still hasn’t got) again by Brazilian comedian Gregório Duvivier from&#8230; Continue readingbrazil,brazilian,portuguese,language,learn,learning,esl,transparent,bykihttp://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/portuguese-listeningreading-practice-a-melhor-coisa-do-aviao/How to use the word “nossa” in Portuguesehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PortugueseBlog/~3/noDoQm38bA8/
http://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/how-to-use-the-word-nossa-in-portuguese/#commentsSat, 29 Jul 2017 15:02:23 +0000Transparent Languagehttp://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/?p=7624Continue reading]]>Ei, galera! Hey, guys!

Last post we covered the many possibilities of the adverb ainda. Today, we’ll move on to another very popular term in our language: nossa. It is, again, one of those words that is so common that Brazilians likely use it on a daily basis.

Nossa is literally a possessive pronoun for nós (we) in the singular feminine form: nossa mãe (our mom), nossa cadeira (our chair), nossa gata (our cat). All of these nouns above are feminine and in the singular form. Take a look at these other examples:

However, nossa is also used as a slang word in Portuguese. It shows surprise, wonder and astonishment. It works as an interjection, a sort of informal exclamation that could be translated as “wow”, “my goodness”, “gosh”, “gee” or something like that.

If we were to trace it back to its possible origins, nossa might derive either from the phrase: nossa senhora! or minha nossa!, both of which also express shock and amazement. Nossa senhora in Portuguese means Our Lady (a good way to help you associate nossa with the possessive pronoun).

Our Lady – Nossa Senhora The possible origin of the expression

When we say nossa, the senhora is dropped, but it still shows a great deal of religious influence in our speech. See some examples:

Ainda is a very useful word in Portuguese, and learning how to use it properly can certainly improve your language skills! It is an adverb that can mean yet, still or even, depending on the context. Let’s take a look and learn.

1) Ainda in the sense of still or yet: until now, until the present moment